"Highly original and accurate for its time (Spanish translation inside)"

Well, at least Gregory Nava did one good film in his career, actually two since he also did the soapy but still effective Mi Familia (My Family), but this film is his unquestionably his best. El Norte (The North) is quite a movie, an independent film praised for his accuracy of immigrant life in the US. In certain ways, I see it at times like a Centro-American version of John Schlessinger’s Midnight Cowboy minus the sex. Low-key and a times moving and hard to watch, El Norte nevertheless is effective at delivering it’s message.

The plot is like Midnight Cowboy, people leaving their hometown in pursuit of the American dream only to realize that in reality it can be a nightmare. Rosa and Enrique Xuncax (Zaide Silvia Gutierrez and David Villalpando, both giving great peroformances) are daughter and son of Arturo (Ernesto Gomez Cruz) and Lupe Xuncax (Alicia Del Lago), a Quiche Indian family in the town of San Pedro in Guatemala, which is surrounded by the beautiful forest and coffee plantations that are the source of work of the people there (great photography by James Glennon). The government for the longest time has oppressed the Quiche Indians as they work through the night sowing and reaping coffee for the high company bosses, and they have finally decided to take action against them; as Arturo would say to his son “To the rich, we’re nothing but a pair of strong arms.” Arturo is one of the main conspirators and rallies followers to a secret meeting, but when a snitch peters out their location of the meeting to the Military, they kill the conspirators and killing and decapitating Arturo in the process. Soon the Military take away the remaining “rebel” families from the town, Lupe amongst them. It’s there at that moment that Rosa and Enrique, fueled by the American magazines from one of their friends, decide to go north, through Mexico and to the United States. As the journey progresses Rosa and Enrique grow stronger together as they endure the hardships of the trip and the last test of crossing the border thanks to a fellow “coyote” (human smuggler), only to find that life in the United States is not all that it appears to be and that life can be really hell for illegal immigrants.

It’s plain to see that the film’s budget is fairly cheap (due to the fact that this is an indie film), but Nava turned that weakness into one of his strengths as it brings one of the most realistic portrayals of immigrant life and their struggles and hardships. Pretty much everything about this film is true from the very beginning. The whole trial and tribulation that Rosa and Enrique have to endure from the very moment their parents are taken away from, the whole difficulty of crossing the border, the disguising attempt as Mexicans in front of INS officers (an effective comic, but deadpan accurate moment), up until their arrival to the US, in which they realize due to their own ignorance that everything is not a rose gardened road, since they have to hike job after job, deal with shitty salaries, and fear of deportation. Nava masterfully handles stereotypes as strengths. Since we see the film practically through the eyes of Rosa and Enrique, you can hear the predominance of Mexican music when they’re in Mexico, as they reach the US, American music is heard. Also, Mexicans see Centro-Americans as ignorant savages, while Americans see them all as ignorant savages, whether they’re from Mexico or Guatemala, and for them they’re all the same. The compare/contrast scene in Tijuana where you can see the beautiful houses on the other side of the border compared to the filth in Tijuana is also exceptional since pretty much shows the disguise of the hell they’re about to encounter due to their status and their ignorance. All these things are still present even in our times and that’s one of the reasons this film is so enduring.

The film’s core though is the relationship of Rosa and Enrique, and how united they are as a family and the dreams they have, even if they are far from reach, but as a better job and a possible legalization is offered to Enrique, he has to question himself about the degree of family values and his own better being. Only through their belief and love of each other they can find the strength and the will to survive, but as they would later find out after so much loss, that the oppression of their own country is also present even in the north. The only difference being that it’s a different country with different masters, but still the same shit for people like them.

In the end, despite the fact that the film is a bit slow and too low-key for it’s own good, this is one film worth watching for everyone, especially people that think that going to the US is all days of bread and wine and roses. Probably the most realistic portrayal of illegal immigrant life out there, especially when you realize that this film was made over 20 years ago. It puzzles me that a film as important as this one is out of print or not out on DVD, but who knows. [conspiracy theory]Maybe the government doesn’t want you to watch the awful truth[/conspiracy theory]. 4.5-5